The five-day Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit seminar, titled "Criminal Intelligence and the War on Terrorism," began yesterday at the Red Lion Inn.

Protesters, who at one point numbered about 400 and had a permit for their march, rallied at Westlake Center, where the crowd listened to a variety of speakers denounce the Justice Department and the domestic war on terror.

From there, they walked up Pike Street to the hotel on Fifth Avenue as some danced to the drums of the Infernal Noise Brigade. Horses carrying Seattle police officers left piles of manure along the sidewalk. One protester draped an American flag over a pile.

The protest crowd stood in front of the Red Lion Inn, where police in riot gear watched from behind steel barriers. The protesters were a mix of teenagers and twentysomethings who wore bandannas over their faces, and calm, older political activists.

At about 8:30 p.m., police reported a segment of the remaining crowd was hurling sticks and bottles, police spokeswoman Deanna Nollette said. A fight broke out after police tried to arrest a protester in front of their "fence line," Nollette said, because the person had damaged property and possibly tried to start a fire. At that point, she said, the crowd surged.

Police then used pepper spray and rubber bullets to break up the gathering.

A Post-Intelligencer photographer was sprayed and hit by a rubber bullet.

An Associated Press photographer also was doused with pepper spray.

Nollette said the protest ended at about 9 p.m. Police, she said, worked hard to issue a permit with "rational parameters" for the protesters. But within five minutes, she said, the protesters violated the terms of the protest permit. For example, they did not adhere to the parade route, she said.

"It was the intent of some of the people there to force the issue," Nollette said.

Nollette was reluctant to compare yesterday's disturbance to other recent protests. But she noted there was no extensive property damage done to the downtown retail district. "The retail corridor will be able to open," she said.

The LEIU is a group of intelligence agents from police departments across the country. This year's conference marks the first time federal intelligence personnel have participated. Tom Ridge, head of the Department of Homeland Security, is scheduled to address the conference.

Scheduled seminar topics included bioterrorism, the current state of criminal intelligence, cybercrime, protecting U.S. borders, hate groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Luma Nichol, 50, of Seattle, a community organizer for the Freedom Socialist Party, called the LEIU an organization "that acts basically as a secret political police in the United States.

"Why are we here? Mostly to let them know that we know who they are and we object to their existence," Nichol said.

Elias Holtz, 20, of Seattle said the protesters had two goals: "We're here to protest the LEIU and pressure the City Council to force the Seattle Police Department to discontinue its membership in the LEIU."

The FBI and the Seattle Police Department are listed as seminar co-hosts, along with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Washington State Patrol, the state Gambling Commission, the King County sheriff's and prosecutor's offices and a handful of other city and county police agencies.

Among the activists' concerns are post-9/11 laws such as the USA Patriot Act, which gives the government expanded powers to use wiretaps, electronic surveillance and other methods of information gathering.